Wednesday -- a review

"Satre said, 'Hell is other people.' He was my first crush."

-- Wednesday Addams.

Back when I heard they were making a TV series out of the Addams Family character Wednesday for Netflix, I really didn’t have much faith that it would be very good. And when I read what the basic plot would be: that Wednesday would be sent to a special school of the dark and wicked, I figured this was going to be much worse than I had initially thought. The Addams Family had been around for decades; it didn’t need to be “modernized” with a bastardized format that merged it with Harry Potter (and I’m really sick and tired of the frigging “magical school for kids” plot that has seemingly overtaken nearly every movie and TV show within the last twenty years).

But when I finally saw Wednesday, you know what? It didn’t suck. In fact, the new Wednesday show on Netflix is really very good. What the heck happened? It’s several things. The first is that Wednesday is being portrayed by Jenna Ortega, who’s a marvelous young actress with a great screen presence. Her Wednesday is still very much the stern, deadpan little creep whom we know and love from the Addams Family films and TV shows. Ortega plays her with just the right balance of contempt for her fellow students, with a dash of sympathy that prevents her from being an all-out monster.

There’s also the superb writing in this series. The writers smartly realize who they’re dealing with, here. Wednesday might be taken aback on the first day at her new school, but this is still Wednesday, who gives as good (even worse!) as she gets, and who takes no prisoners while doing it. Forget any associations to Harry Potter, because even in a school with vampires and other things that go bump in the night, Wednesday is still a formidable force of her own who stalks along her own path--and to hell with anybody who gets in her way. The fact that the writers “get” Wednesday so well, and right out of the gate--from the very first scene of the first episode--is what makes this series so much fun to watch.

And having Tim Burton direct the first half of the season is also another reason why I love this show. His usual gloomy and creepy aesthetic is a such perfect fit with the Addams Family that I’m surprised that Burton hasn’t worked within this franchise sooner. Recasting Wednesday as a teen sleuth from one of those dipshit CW shows should have been a really bad idea. But by maintaining Wednesday’s true, darkly caustic self, this also becomes a wickedly funny take-down on those very same Nancy Drew-type series. I’m eagerly looking forward to another sleuthing adventure with Wednesday and her right-hand hand, Thing. --SF

The first season of Wednesday is only available on Netflix for now.

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